BBS

BBS /B-B-S/ /n./ [abbreviation, `Bulletin Board System'] An
electronic bulletin board system; that is, a message database where
people can log in and leave broadcast messages for others grouped
(typically) into topic groups. Thousands of local BBS systems
are in operation throughout the U.S., typically run by amateurs for
fun out of their homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line
each. Fans of Usenet and Internet or the big commercial
timesharing bboards such as CompuServe and GEnie tend to consider
local BBSes the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they
serve a valuable function by knitting together lots of hackers and
users in the personal-micro world who would otherwise be unable to
exchange code at all. See also bboard.